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Laptop reformat

theleech

Posted 27 November 2010 - 10:42 AM

theleech

Member

Member

49 posts

Hi there. My sister has just got a new laptop, so she has passed her old one on to me. Unfortunately it is in dire need of a reformat, and we didn't get an XP disk when we bought it. On the bottom of the laptop is a microsoft product key. Is there anyway i can reformat the laptop and use the key to make it genuine? If not, what would be your suggestion on how i make the laptop as close to reformatted as possible?

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SpywareDr

Posted 27 November 2010 - 10:56 AM

rshaffer61

Posted 27 November 2010 - 11:03 AM

rshaffer61

Moderator

Moderator

34,114 posts

Depending on the age of the laptop there may already be a recovery partition on the hd.
What is the make and model and we can see if such a partition exist and how to access it.
This would format and reload everything as it was brand new from the factory,

123Runner

Posted 28 November 2010 - 06:30 AM

123Runner

Member 4k

Member

4,381 posts

Lets take a look at the drives and partitions.

Go to startGo to runType in compmgmt.mscClick on OKOn the left side under storage...click on disk management.Make sure the right side showing the drives is expanded so we can see it all.Take a screen shot showing the drives and partitions.

theleech

Posted 02 December 2010 - 03:20 AM

theleech

Member

Topic Starter

Member

49 posts

Thanks for replies everyone, but its no longer necessary. I tried to replace the keyboard and the screen and suffice to say it didn't go well. It now won't power on. It's with a mate whose a computer technician at the moment, but he says its pretty hopeless as i broke a vital connector. But at least I'll know for next time!